The present invention relates to electric luminaires and more particularly to electric luminaires having internal wiring for interconnecting light sources. The invention has particular application in luminaires having limited space for electrical wires, such as luminaires having planar OLED light sources where OLED panels are mounted on or in the structural walls of the luminaire and where no housing exists in which electric wires and leads can be contained and hidden from view. However, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to OLED luminaires.
Many luminaires are of the type where the body of the luminaire is a visual element in a space. Examples are ceiling suspended and wall mounted luminaires. Normally, such luminaires have some sort of housing component that contains and hides the electrical wiring of the luminaire, sometimes with other components such as ballasts needed for fluorescent lighting. Such visible luminaire need to provide a path for the wires to travel and some sort of containment for the wires.
The emergence of energy efficient area light sources such as OLEDs has made it possible to design luminaires entirely of thin structural walls where the light sources are mounted or set into the structural wall without any surrounding structure. For example an OLED luminaire could be comprised of a flat panel having one or more suspension points with a series of inset OLED panels. Such luminaires would be aesthetically pleasing, but present a problem as to where to put and how to contain the wires used to electrify the OLED panels without disturbing the aesthetic properties of the luminaire.